Telecom subscriber base in the country grew marginally to 119.9 crore in March due to new additions by Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, according to a Trai report released yesterday.

The broadband subscriber base rose to 92.4 crore, as per the monthly subscriber report published by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), a PTI report stated.

“The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,197.75 million at the end of February 2024 to 1,199.28 million at the end of March 2024, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.13 per cent,” the report said.

Meanwhile, in a statement, the telecom regulator said, as per information received from 1,158 operators in March, 2024, in comparison to 1132 operators in February 2024, the total broadband subscribers increased from 916.77 million at the end of February-24 to 924.07 million at the end of March-24 with a monthly growth rate of 0.80 percent.

Top five service providers constituted 98.36 percent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of March-24. These service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (481.07 million), Bharti Airtel (273.23 million), Vodafone Idea (127.69 million), BSNL (24.70 million) and Atria Convergence (2.25 million).

The top five wired broadband service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd with 11.27 million subs, Bharti Airtel with 7.73 million subs, BSNL with 4.05 million customers, Atria Convergence Technologies with 2.25 million subs and Oneott Intertainment Limited with 1.22 million subs.

As on March 2024, the top five wireless broadband service providers were Reliance Jio Infocom Ltd (469.73 million subs), Bharti Airtel (265.50 million), Vodafone Idea (127.69 million), BSNL (20.65 million) and Intech Online Pvt. Ltd. (0.24 million).

Wireline subscribers increased from 33.10 million at the end of February-24 to 33.79 million at the end of March-24. Net increase in the wireline subscriber base was 0.69 million with a monthly rate of growth 2.07 percent.

The share of urban and rural subscribers in total wireline subscribers were 91.49 percent and 8.51 percent, respectively at the end of March, 2024.

The overall wireline tele-density in India increased from 2.37 percent at the end of February-24 to 2.41 percent at the end of March-24. Urban and rural wireline tele-density were 6.21 percent and 0.32 percent, respectively during the same period.

BSNL, MTNL and APSFL, the three government-controlled access service providers, held 27.58 percent of the wireline market share as of March 2024.

Wireline subscribers increased from 33.10 million at the end of February-24 to 33.79 million at the end of March-24. Net increase in the wireline

subscriber base was 0.69 million with a monthly rate of growth 2.07 percent. The share of urban and rural subscribers in total wireline subscribers were 91.49 percent and 8.51 percent respectively at the end of March 2024, the TRAI data said.